Mass arrivals as part of air show?

I’ll bet you’re glad you printed Lisa Kondrick’s article about our trip to OSH (Time to get outta Dodge, Sept. 9 issue). I’m sitting back enjoying all of the comments. I am also puzzled by some things though. The comments in the article were clearly referring to the EAA and its policy of allowing large groups to arrive in mass. Why do the Bonanza people feel attacked? The Mooney group has been admirably quiet. I have an email from Tom Poberezny in response to my comments to EAA that addresses the matter like a class act. This is what I would expect from him. Why the defensive posture from the Bonanza people?

Let me suggest an alternative to bringing the group in during the normal arrival process. If, as said in at least one of the letters, it only takes 10 minutes to land all of these airplanes (I seriously doubt that since we were going around a lake for more than 30 minutes waiting for them), put it in the NOTAM to allow the mass arrivals after the normal arrivals are done for the day or before normal arrivals begin. The daylight hours are sufficiently long at the end of July to accommodate this. This takes traffic away from the already congested airspace. This even facilitates more people watching the arrivals since there is nothing else coming in. How about making it part of the first day’s airshow? Either of these would work and be safer since nobody else would be arriving during the time of the mass arrivals. It would also be safer since everyone could use a runway into the wind instead of someone having to use a crosswind runway. The Bonanzas wouldn’t even have to taxi on grass until they get to the camping area.

Kirk Voeckel
Tarentum, Pa.

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